The Partner Swap Mission
by Texan Red Rose
Summary: In an AU where nothing went terribly wrong at the Vytal Festival, Team RWBY are in their third year at Beacon and tasked with thinning the numbers of Grimm in preparation for the next year's initiation. As an added wrinkle, they must clear their sector with a teammate other than their partner. However, things don't go quite to plan for Blake and Weiss.


**Disclaimer:** Based off a suggestion from Salty Crusader on the RarePair Rave discord. Consider this the 'governments actually use anti-virus software' AU, where Cinder's plan is thwarted by the mundane, routine check of Atlas' systems and nothing big and bad happens. Honestly, this is just Blake being a dork and Weiss being extra, as usual.

* * *

Blake bit her lip, trying her hardest to swallow down the question on her tongue. However, despite how many times she'd already asked, it left her lips once again. "Weiss-"

"For the last- urk- time, Belladonna- hmph- I'm not- huh- I'm not leaving you- shit- behind!" Every labored breath grated on all four of her ears and made her chest tightened as she did everything in her power not to move. The last thing she wanted to do was make things more difficult for the young woman carrying her. "That's- ugh- final!"

The Faunus sighed, ears straining against her bow as they tried to lay back against her skull in contrition. Three years into their Huntress training, one would think she'd have the foresight to keep better track of her position when dealing with a bed of King Taijitu, but her concentration had slipped ever so slightly. Before she knew it, her right leg was clamped between one head's powerful jaws and she was thrown about, knocking into trees and boulders, wearing down her already depleted aura.

Their week long mission through the Emerald Forest, clearing out the Grimm that had encroached on Vale's boarders in preparation for the first years' trial in a few months time, had put both of them through the wringer, with the infestation much worse than it had been in years past. As an added challenge, the third year students had swapped partners, putting their skills to the test in a fashion they seldom exercised during their usual classes. For the most part, this didn't upset the balance Team RWBY had established over their time together; Yang's brute strength coupled with Ruby's speed made the sisters a deadly pair, and Weiss and Blake had learned to move to a new rhythm together, their swords sailing through the air as two halves to a whole threat.

However, they'd run into trouble early on with a pack of alpha Beowolves, and the combination of greater numbers with more cunning adversaries meant they couldn't recuperate, couldn't replenish the energy nearly as quickly as they expended it. Add to that a split second of distraction- really, if it hadn't been for the white Nevermore Weiss summoned, Blake would probably be much worse off than a simple broken leg and some bruised ribs.

Careful not to hinder the woman's trudging pace in any way, Blake looked down at her wounded leg, bound in a makeshift splint by wood and fabric ripped from the formerly white jacket Weiss wore, now soiled almost beyond salvation by dirt and the smokey remnants of downed Grimm. More strips from the woman's jacket were wrapped around her arms, staunching the bleeding that resulted form being tossed around without her aura to protect her- dull aches but nothing life threatening. Moving on her own, though, wouldn't be possible in her condition, and she'd tried her very best to argue that Weiss should leave her in the cleared out cave, where she could at least deter any wandering Grimm from a decently defensible position.

Apparently, she must've hit her head as well, because she honestly thought she could win an argument against the resident heiress of Beacon.

"A break?" She suggested, feigning that it was her intention initially to ask that. "Is a break too much to ask?"

Although it took a moment, the woman's gait slowed until she finally came to a stop, allowing Blake to feel the trembling in muscles far overtaxed with exertion. They were still at least a click from the extraction point with no signs of their teammates or anyone else. If only their scrolls hadn't gotten damaged during that first ambush, if they hadn't stubbornly thought they could complete the mission without the communications devices in hand- so many fleeting regrets that wouldn't serve them any good now.

"Fine. A break." Changing course, Weiss managed to make it to a large tree, carefully shifting their combined weight until the Faunus could get her good foot under her, the iron grip on her wrist released so they could disengage completely. Being carried slung across the woman's shoulders wasn't dignified in the slightest, but it kept a hand free for each of them, which meant Gambol Shroud and Myrtenaster could both be brought to bear, were they to encounter trouble.

Although she could probably manage just fine on her own, Weiss helped her sit down with her back to the tree. Truthfully, aside from the change in position, sitting down didn't offer much benefit. Her leg throbbed angrily with the change in direction, radiating from the point of the break despite the immobilizing splint, but she didn't suggest the stop for her sake. Instead, amber eyes fell on her teammate's form as the woman paced around a little, trying to subtly work out the cramps in her legs and back. It also helped hide the faint tremble, her muscles obviously fatigued- Blake grimaced at the thought of how sore the woman would be once this was all over.

Their relationship had changed drastically over the course of their years at Beacon. At first, they were more enemies than friends, arguing and fighting until the fateful day she'd spoken without thinking, revealing her heritage to the stunned young women in their dorm room. A few days and a completely thrashed shipyard later, Weiss acted like their previous differences didn't matter at all, that they could be teammates. She hadn't quite believed a few words were all it took to wash away years of bad blood, but she was willing to try. And to her surprise, it went much better than she could've imagined; after the docks incident, Weiss did almost a complete one-eighty- well, by her standards, of course, because there weren't enough good intentions in the world to dull the bite of her cutting replies- and either supported or questioned the Faunus on anything regarding her people, absent the clear disdain she'd shown just before their first appearance in the Vytal tournament. She still made mistakes from time to time but she got better, more open, and Blake, in turn, learned a bit more about the woman's home life. She'd always assumed that the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, the most powerful corporation in Remnant, would want for nothing her entire life.

She was very wrong.

"It shouldn't be too much farther now." Blue eyes scanned the horizon, picking out the distinct jutting of the cliff in the distance that served as their only landmark. "A quick rest and we'll be on our way."

"We're close enough now," she said, bracing against the sharp look leveled at her. "If you go on ahead-"

"Blake Belladonna, so help me Maidens, I will find a way to glyph your mouth shut if you make that suggestion one more time." Weiss scowled, glancing at the cliff briefly. "We began this mission together and we will end it together. I'll not have it said that I left- that I left a teammate behind. Am I clear?"

Well, that went about as well as every other attempt to make the suggestion, so she couldn't even feign surprise. Instead, she leaned her head back against the tree and sighed, eyes closing as she tried to mentally work out whether reaching the rendezvous point was even feasible, considering their condition.

"Blake." She opened one eye to see the woman as she took a step forward, crouching down until they were on eye level with each other. The Faunus could see something glinting in her teammate's eyes, words she wanted to say but wouldn't. "How's your leg?"

That wasn't it but they both silently agreed to pretend like it was. "Still hurts, but I guess that's a good thing."

Carefully, Weiss checked the splint and the bandages- thankfully, she'd somehow avoided a compound fracture, but she probably wouldn't be able to move around without the aid of a crutch or cane for a week at best- and stood, nodding to herself.

The whole while the Faunus watched, she could feel the sour tint to her mood worsen. Even if she wasn't in the best condition following their run-in with the lats batch of Grimm, she could plainly see the cuts and scrapes along Weiss' skin that she'd purposefully held back her aura from healing. They were both running low on energy and strength and the fact she couldn't return the favor, ensure the woman's wounds were as inconsequential as she suggested, burned her.

Reciprocity, it turned out, proved to be the foundations of their bond as teammates and friends. The more Blake spoke of the early days of the White Fang, of the mines and the camps, of leaving Menagerie and joining Adam, of rejecting his methods and her struggle to survive until Beacon, the more she learned about the Schnee heiress, the perfect princess who grew up in an expansive, cold castle with nothing more than impossible goals to keep her company, facing down tests and trials of her own. Because if the man who had sat at the head of such a corrupt company could be so cold and cruel to an entire people for the sake of his pocketbook, what really made anyone think he would be kind to his own flesh and blood? But she never tried to compare or liken her childhood to the plight of the Faunus- she'd learned her lesson in that regard. A difficult childhood, she'd said, produced a difficult child, but she aimed to 'grow up' and thanked Blake for her help in that matter. But it went both ways; even if most humans at Beacon didn't outright discriminate against Faunus, few stood against it vocally or visibly the way Weiss started to towards the end of that first year. She seemed determined to go out on her terms, if she ended up not being able to return to Beacon at all.

When Weiss was cut off from the family accounts during that first tournament, the entire team thought things might change dramatically. After all, what would the woman do without the one constant she'd had her whole life? And the ultimatum that followed didn't bolster their confidence any, especially after seeing how abrasive Winter- eldest of the Schnee children- could be normally. But they'd underestimated just how stubborn Weiss could be and how much she emulated her elder sister, who diverted from their father's path and found her own way in the world. After the break following their first year, Weiss returned to the school grounds with just a single suitcase and her sword. No more cold mansion, no more demanding father, and no more money, but Blake vividly recalled the smile on the woman's face when she'd seen her teammates and proudly announced herself entirely divested of the title 'heiress'.

They'd spent that second year bonding even further as a team, growing closer on missions and while trying to stay awake during classes, bent over homework or cleaning their respective weapons. Free of the burden of her family's name, Weiss blossomed into a much kinder- if still blunt and occasionally narrow minded- person. Likewise, the Faunus liked to think that, without the weight of hiding her past and heritage from her closest friends, she'd become more open with them, less inclined to deflect or hide away what she felt and thought.

Of course… that didn't quite apply to everything.

"Blake?" She looked up as Weiss hurried over- well, nearly stumbled would be more apt. "Are you alright? Have you lost too much blood?"

"No?" She raised a brow. "Why do you ask?"

"You're sitting there with a broken leg and a smile; I'm fairly certain those two things are mutually exclusive in all but cases of severe blood loss," the woman replied, a worried crease to your brow.

Now that she'd mentioned it, the pain had lessened, either from her brain blocking out the nerve signals or numbness. She couldn't be sure which. "I was just thinking of a happy memory. No cause for alarm."

With suspicion shining brightly in her eyes, Weiss shook her head. "We need to get moving again. You need the medical attention."

She wanted to argue some more, maybe bait the woman into a rant, but it would do neither of them any good at this point. Especially with Myrtenaster's tip pointed at the ground, a familiar glyph appearing a few short feet away. In a flash of light, Weiss' summoned knight appeared, kneeling down to acknowledge the woman before turning its sights on Blake.

"Weiss?" Although an extremely useful skill in battle, the summoning of former enemies was still a new aspect to Weiss' fighting style, having only truly manifested towards the end of last year. That didn't make it any easier to accept the ten foot tall, gleaming white knight that stood and walked over to the tree, kneeling beside her. The pinpricks of blue set deep into the visor always worried her, because the light there seemed more than just a projection, as if it was… alive, in a way.

"We were too far away before; I wasn't sure I could maintain the summon." The knight reached out with its unoccupied hand while Weiss came around to help her move into leaning against the summon's arm. "This should make the remainder of the trip much quicker."

Amber eyes darted to the sky, beginning to tinge orange with the setting sun. "Good idea."

Seated in the crook of the knight's elbow and pulled tight against its chest, Blake grabbed onto its breastplate and it stood and turned, heading towards the cliffs with Weiss trailing behind them. Despite the knight's cumbersome size, it could move at a surprisingly quick pace, the looming cliffside drawing closer with every step.

Unfortunately, this meant the Faunus couldn't see Weiss, nor could she heard the woman's softer gait over the knight's heavy tread.

Blake bit her lip, debating on calling out to ask for her teammate to walk beside the summon or in front- somewhere the Faunus could see or hear her moving. It would be foolish, though; Weiss and her summons always shared a bond, moving as if they were one entity. Without the knight setting the pace, they wouldn't move as quickly, and she could imagine every point and counterpoint to exist in that impending argument, which she would lose simply because she couldn't think of nearly as good a reason to request the change as the truth, which she couldn't say, either.

Surreal as it seemed, Weiss wasn't the cold, spoiled brat she appeared to be when they first met three years ago, and she wasn't the same jaded Faunus, either. They'd grown together, relearned how to trust, and while their respective partners were big factors in that development, it didn't deepen the bonds the partners shared quite as much as between the former ideological enemies. When Blake wanted to unwind with a book, she could count on Yang to try and coax her out into the city- a park somewhere, which would be outdoors enough for the blonde but not as quiet as the Faunus preferred- and on Ruby to try and either get invested in the book as well or leave her to her own devices, and on Weiss to exist in the same space without making too much noise and engrossed in her own quiet task. Coexisting with the woman, after their initial unpleasantness subsided, was easy as breathing, and they shared many interests if not the same taste.

Lately, Blake had started wondering if, perhaps, there was a reason for that. Her mother asking if anyone caught her eye during her days at Beacon probably contributed to the thought that maybe… well, Weiss was intelligent, with a quick wit and a sharp tongue, and while her outlook on several issues had changed and evolved over time, her core beliefs remained as solid as ever. Graceful when she fought, thoughtful in her interactions, able to switch between a cool placid lake and a fiery volcano in the blink of an eye, and just…

The Faunus sighed, slumping slightly against the knight's arm. She quite possibly had developed a bit of a crush on the woman in the past several months. There really existed no better explanation for why she got so excited about a simple partner swap assignment in the Emerald Forest, or why she'd gotten surprised by the King Taijitu in the first place- she'd gotten distracted, watching as Weiss wove her way through the four lunging heads and slicing into them with the same ease as one might cut through butter wielding a hot knife, making the whole battle seem like a dance. Even tired, dirty, and drained, Weiss looked stunning, poetry in motion- she'd never seen anything half as beautiful.

Suddenly, the knight shifted, the hand holding its longsword switching to a backwards grip and allowing the tip to drag through the dirt.

"Weiss?"

"Just… marking the path." She could hear the slightly breathless quality to the woman's voice, as if the exertion of the day was finally catching up to her. "That bed might become a hot spot next time. Easier to find this way."

Reluctantly accepting the explanation- she had seen Weiss summoning the odd glyph now and then earlier, and summoning more glyphs would likely break her concentration- Blake settled back against the summon's arm, noting those pinpricks of blue light watching her for a moment before looking forward again. Honestly, aside from the strange sensation of the… light… that constituted the knight's physical form pressing against her, like electricity barely contained behind glass, she might be able to fall asleep to its gentle and steady pace. Everything hurt, a dull throb that radiated from her leg and seemed to bounce around every joint, calling her to sleep- she might've even drifted off, briefly, but found herself startled wide awake when the knight's stride faltered.

It caught itself and kept going, dragging its sword and carrying her without difficulty, yet she could sense something was wrong. It didn't feel the same as before, as if the energy was fading, and a glance up proved that little flakes of the summon were breaking off and drifting away, disappearing into nothingness. She'd seen enough of Weiss' summoned allies disperse to realize the knight wouldn't remain a physical construct much longer, but rather than be concerned by her impending fall, she called out.

"Weiss?" She struggled, trying to get a grip on the smooth white armor to no avail, unable to turn her hips enough to use her good leg for leverage. "Weiss?" No answer came from behind the knight as it started to stagger. "Weiss!"

"Blake!" She turned, catching sight of the rendezvous point and several of her classmates standing around, waiting for the missing members of their teams to return. Of their number, she could pick out Yang and Ruby easily, running towards her in the orange glow of the setting sun. Her partner was the one to call out, a wide smile on her lips that could be seen even from the several meters between them as the summon staggered out of the brush. "You okay?"

"Weiss is hurt!" She yelled out, trying to motion around the knight's bulky frame. "Keep going! Find her!"

Yang slowed down, brow furrowing in confusion, but Ruby heard loud and clear, turning into a red blur as she raced past the collapsing summon to find their missing teammate. The knight had the presence to kneel down, extending its arm so she could be transferred to Yang before more of it broke off, turning into little white specks. The blonde grunted when her shoulder collided with the woman's chest a bit more forcefully than any of them intended, but she managed to keep from hitting the splint when she curled her arms up, taking the Faunus' weight away from the summon as it dispersed entirely.

"Whoa, Blakey, you two have a rough time or what?" Worried lilac eyes looked her up and down before the brawler turned on heel, marching back to where the others stood, confusion turning to startled shouts for medical attention.

"Yang, we have to go back, Weiss is out there-" Once again, Blake tried worming her way out of the arms holding her, but she simply lacked the strength at this point.

"Ruby'll find her." Four people rushed past, looking to follow the line left by the knight's sword. "And Team JNPR will bring them back, safe and sound. They've got this and you're in no condition to go yourself."

"Yang!"

"Blake!" The blonde smirked. "See? I can do that, too."

"This isn't funny." She growled, tempted to try finding just a little bit of leverage- she couldn't overpower her partner, but she could out maneuver her nine times out of ten- but the teachers rushing over effectively killed that plan. Outmaneuvering Yang might be easy in comparison, even with a broken leg, but outrunning Doctor Oobleck was out of the question.

"Hey," her partner said, waiting for amber to meet lilac before she continued. "I know, alright? But you know as well as I do that if you aren't on your way to the infirmary by the time they bring her back, none of us will hear the end of it for years." Her lips quirked up into a small grin. "She wanted to make sure you got back safe, so when we bring her back, you can be the one to give her an earful, deal?"

Blake fought the impulse to argue further, bow crinkling once again as her ears laid back in frustration. "Deal."

With that, she stopped struggling, hoping they would find the woman passed out along the trail they've carved and bring her back, sore but no worse for wear.

If something happened to Weiss while she was out there… she'd never forgive herself.

* * *

Laying in the infirmary with her leg set up in a proper cast was the purest form of torture she'd ever known. No scroll to distract her, no news from her team, drugs to help her aura recover so the bone would heal quicker robbing her of focus and entirely coherent thought- she could've laid there for days, staring blankly at the ceiling without noticing the time. Luckily, she heard the click of the door, her head lolling so she could look in the direction of the sound. To her immense relief, the first person through the door was Yang, both hands wrapped around the handles of a stretcher.

"Hey, Blakey. Brought you a present."

The Faunus pushed herself up, sluggishly rising just enough to watch as the sisters entered the room with Weiss on a stretcher between them, looking far too still and pale, despite the dirt and grime on her face. "Is she-"

"Oh, she's just sleeping really hard." Their team leader piped up, obviously just as relieved as Blake. "Total aura depletion can really take it out of a person and they also had some emergency medicine down at the rendezvous."

"Both of you will be out of commission for a while." The blonde continued, giving a wordless count off before the sisters lowered their teammate in tandem. "You for the leg and her for the drugs to wear off." With her burden deposited, Yang turned and looked at her partner, hands on her hips and head cocking to the side. "Must've been a helluva fight for both of you to be in this condition."

Threaded between the words lay half a dozen unspoken fears as the brawler did everything in her power not to come off as the mother hen she could be at any given moment. The woman had a big heart and cared deeply for her teammates, so Blake consciously opted to not make light of her concern. "We'll tell you the story when she wakes up. I… made a few mistakes, and it cost us."

"It happens to everyone," Ruby said, offering an encouraging smile. "I'm sure it was just a fluke! No reason to beat yourself up about it."

The Faunus chuckled. "Isn't that more of a Weiss thing?"

"I think it's very much a 'you two' thing." The blonde looked back at her sister. "Wanna help me transfer her to the bed."

The younger of the duo looked down at her partners legs, a frown on her lips. "Uh… where do I… grab?"

"Don't worry about it, was just askin' anyway." Yang knelt down. "Say, how about you head down to the cafeteria and grab them some real food? They'll both need it."

"Ice cream and cookies, got it!" The team leader joked, rushing over to Blake's bedside to throw her arms around her slightly larger frame. "I'm glad you're both okay."

"Thanks, Ruby," she replied, returning the hug with one arm before letting the younger woman head out, closing the door behind her while Yang scooped their teammate into her arms and put her on the bed, finding an extra blanket to tuck her in with before turning lilac eyes towards the Faunus. Before she could really think about it, the words left her tongue. "I'm sorry-"

"Are you apologizing to me or her?" The blonde sighed, shaking her head and crossing the room. "Blake, look, we're all just glad you're okay, and you're crazy if you think Weiss won't agree with that."

"But she's the one lying there unconscious-"

"And you have your leg in a cast." Yang waved a hand, dismissing her next argument. "Look, we can nitpick this to death or we can just agree- both of you need to talk, and the sooner the better." The only person she could possibly entrust with such a secret as her confusing, growing feelings for Weiss was her partner, and the blonde had obviously seen straight through the entire situation without any explanation at all. "I know Frosty over here would go to the ends of Remnant for any one of us, but she went above and beyond for you, Blake. I really think that means something."

"We didn't have much of a choice." She looked away, a blush rising in her cheeks as it always did whenever they actually talked about it. Having a crush was bad, having a more-than-likely unrequited crush was worse, but compounding that was having a best friend who seemed intent on getting to the bottom of it all. "She wouldn't leave me there-"

"And she had half a vial left of red dust." One brow raised up. "Why didn't you two just hole up for a bit? She could've set an acre on fire with a flick of her wrist, and there's nothing in the Emerald Forest capable of doing that so quickly." She paused, grimacing. "At least, nothing that wouldn't take half of us to bring down. Everyone would've known to converge on the smoke, anyway."

Blake blinked slowly, her mouth hanging open just a little. "We… didn't even think about that."

With a sigh, Yang sat down on the edge of her bed and gave her a pointed look. "You honestly think little Miss 'I-am-always-prepared-for-everything' Weiss, Miss 'here's-a-specially-design-magazine-with-special-dust-infused-rounds' Weiss, Miss 'I-read-an-article-six-years-ago-on-Vacuon-binding-practices' Weiss, Miss 'I-ace-every-test-without-studying-but-study-anyway-with-color-coded-notes' Weiss, didn't think about a signal fire?"

"Well… I didn't think about it." She muttered, slumping back against the bed.

"Nah, of course not; knowing you, you told her to go on without you and get help, right?" The blonde chuckled, reaching over to untie the bow binding her ears, giving the right one a playful flick. "And she said nuts to that and insisted she have her knight carry you back, and you were in too much pain to really argue like you usually do. Am I right?"

Blake frowned, her ears drooping in tandem. "She carried me, actually. Until she couldn't anymore."

"Whoa, no wonder she's exhausted." She shrugged. "Point still stands, Blakey. You two are more complex than Crescent Rose, but it doesn't take Ruby to figure out how each of you operates. Weiss definitely thought of a signal fire, and then decided she couldn't just sit and wait for someone to come. It would've driven her insane being so helpless with you in pain."

Biting her lip briefly, the Faunus looked up at her partner, not giving her request half as much thought as it deserved before she spoke, still too loopy from the medicine to properly censor herself. "Yang… could you…" Amber eyes flicked towards Weiss' bed. "Please?"

"Say no more." The blonde got up, grabbing two chairs from the corner of the room and dragging them over to their teammate's bedside, setting them up across from each other and parallel to the bed itself. She then came back and, with a little clumsy help, picked up Blake and carried her over to the chairs, ensuring the cast got propped up.

Honestly, the chair was uncomfortable on her lower back, but she managed to smile rather than grimace at her best friend. "Thanks."

"No problem. Now, I think I'll go see what's keeping Ruby." She started towards the door, throwing a wink over her shoulder. "Ya know, make sure it takes double, that sorta stuff. Keep an eye on Frosty for us, won't ya, Blakey?"

With a fond shake of her head, she waved her friend off, leaning back in the chair and sighing. Amber eyes traced up and down Weiss' body, her vision slightly blurry but at least clear enough for her to make out the steady rise and fall of her chest, which mollified the Faunus a little. She could already imagine how cross the woman would be when she woke up and saw Blake out of bed but, well, some things were more important, she thought, a small smile on her lips.

"I can't believe you sometimes," she said, her voice soft. "One minute, you're on the rest of us about taking care of ourselves, eating properly, going to bed at a decent hour, studying… and then the next, you're throwing yourself into the first danger to rear its head." Her gaze slid up, landing on her teammates face, peaceful in slumber despite it not being a natural one. "Sometimes, I ask myself why- why you do it, why you keep doing it, why you won't let one of us share that burden. You're so selfless." A sigh escaped her then, gaze dropping with her shoulders and ears. "I've always admired that about you. I wish I'd told you that sooner. Or… at all." She looked away, as if that would somehow hide the blush rising to her cheeks, doubly ineffective since the only other person in the room happened to be unconscious. "Listen to me- I sound like this is one of those dramatic, near death scenes in my books, where the whole chapter makes you fear the worst… but you'll be good as new in a few days. If that, knowing you."

A low grunt caught her attention, ear flicking towards the sound before she looked back up, breath catching in her throat. Weiss had flinched in her sleep, her brow furrowed in some unknown emotion and tension running through her frame, breathing coming quicker. Blake had seen this before, though rarely; one of the woman's nightmares had taken hold, dragging her through some unknown, unpleasant place that usually ended with her sitting bolt upright in bed, drenched in a cold sweat. Right now, though, Weiss needed to sleep and recoup her energy, so the Faunus reached out, searching under the covers until she could find her teammate's hand, clasping it in hers.

"Weiss, listen to me. You're safe, you're okay." She reached out with her left hand, cupping the woman's cheek. Twisting around so her leg remained on the other chair wasn't exactly comfortable but, at this point, she could honestly care less about her personal comfort. "Wherever you think you are, you're not there. Go somewhere happier. You're safe here, with me."

Blake waited, hoping she could get through; usually, she awoke to the sounds of her teammate's erratic breathing and flinching, remaining in her bed until she heard the woman wake up and go to the bathroom to splash water on her face. Then, she'd pretend she woke up to the noise of someone leaving the room, ask if Weiss was alright, and if she needed anything. The response she always got was a tight lipped smile and a 'I'm fine' before they'd both return to bed. She always kicked herself, wishing she would actually go and wake the woman up, but then she'd open herself up to the inevitable questions- did she always wake up, why didn't she say anything, it wasn't intentional- and the anxiety kept her listening during those infrequent nights when the shadows lurking in Weiss' mind got the better of her.

Eventually, the woman's breathing evened out, the crease to her brow fading back into a peaceful expression. The Faunus let out a sigh of relief, though she couldn't find it within herself to draw away just yet.

"You know, if this was one of my books… this would definitely be the part where I kiss you." A chuckle slipped passed her lips, the absurdity of the sentence striking her. Not that it wasn't true, of course, but rather because she'd never actually manage to say something so ridiculously sappy to Weiss. Despite her love of romance novels- and 'romance' novels- her ability to be romantic was often hindered by a fierce blush and an inability to think coherently when she needed to most. "It'd take away the nightmares and you'd awaken, eyelids fluttering as you sat up, strong as before and free. Or so the stories go. True love's kiss is pretty powerful, they say."

"Given how awful I feel, I'd be willing to try it." Blake's shoulders jumped, her gaze snapping to the woman's face as a small grin lifted one side of her mouth. "Not sure about the sitting up part, though. The kiss would have to be quite exceptional-"

"You heard all that?" She cringed, realizing a second too late how dumb the question was, all things considered. "I mean, I can explain-"

"Blake?" Apparently summoning all her strength, Weiss opened her eyes, blue orbs meet her gaze for a brief moment. "You utter dolt. If you're about to take all that back, you might as well start hobbling away now." That seemed to be the extent of her recovered strength, though, as her eyes closed again and she let out a sigh. "Did the knight make it back? I… can't remember…"

"Yeah, it did." Risking the lecture that would follow were she caught, the Faunus pulled her broken leg off the other chair so she could turn and look at the woman more comfortably. "You got me back to the rendezvous point."

"Good." A few deep, long breaths followed, and she almost thought the woman had fallen back asleep until she spoke again. "So… this true love's kiss… I hear there's different types of love. Platonic, familial… romantic." The hand still clasped in hers twitched slightly, fingers curling around hers on the last word. "If this was one of your books, which type of kiss would this be?"

Blake froze, many words trapped in her throat while she remained entirely unsure of which words, exactly, they were. It… it really couldn't be, could it? That Yang was right, that Weiss returned her feelings, that they might actually have a chance- her silly crush was just that, wasn't it?

"Well, if… if it were up to me," she said, the poor attempt at stalling followed by her clearing her throat. "If it were up to me, I'd say… romantic."

Weiss squeezed her hand, her grin broadening into a full fledged smile. "Good. We're on the same page, then." She cracked one eye open. "I think that's a pretty important part of the kiss working."

"It is."

"Then, what are you waiting for?" Her eye closed again, voice becoming thick as sleep called her back to the depths. "I don't bite."

"Shame," she replied, thankful that Weiss couldn't see her in that exact moment as a blush lit up her cheeks.

"Well, I'm always open to learning new tricks."

Shaking her head, Blake carefully lifted herself out of the chair and leaned over, brushing their lips together in a soft kiss. When she drew back, mindful to keep her weight off her right leg, the Faunus could honestly say she felt lighter than ever, a smile spreading across her face. "I can't believe you carried me five clicks until you literally passed out from exhaustion for a kiss. I can't imagine what you'll do for a date."

"I'll fight to stay awake." Weiss cracked her eyes open again, a faint flush rising in her cheeks. "At this point, that seems to be a nigh insurmountable task."

"I'd rather you rest for now." Noting that Yang had accidentally- or, perhaps, very intentionally- placed the woman more to one side of the bed than the center, she hobbled around to the other side and laid down, careful to put her injured leg down on the bed gently. She'd prefer laying with the cast on the outside of them but, considering her teammate- girlfriend?- could hardly move, this seemed like the more pragmatic answer. "We can discuss heroic deeds and wooing once we can both move around without assistance."

"Sounds reasonable."

She couldn't be sure if the words were a last ditch effort at remaining conscious or an acquiescence, but Weiss slipped back into slumber a moment later, their shoulders just barely touching. A kiss and closeness while they convalesced- it wasn't much but, after how far they'd come, it felt wonderful knowing they still had much further to go, and Blake closed her eyes and slipped into a peaceful slumber.


End file.
